Street scene – lockdown 002

Nick Stark

Evoking feelings of calm that cut through the angst and the confusion that permeate the street below. The white noise of the traffic, the randomness of the day – over time – slowly give way to the layered rhythms.

Street scene – lockdown 002 by Nick Stark was commissioned as part of the Tura Adapts 2020 Commissions @TheRoots – see more commissions here.

Notes from the Composer

Being forced to experience the outside world through the singular aperture of the window in the room in which I’m required to work. The white noise of the traffic, the randomness of the day – over time – slowly give way to the rhythms:

The rhythms of birdsong, the patterns within the traffic, the tense intense white noise of the traffic gives over to the calming, infinite, indefatigable white noise of a summer storm. The randomness finds structure, the tension releases. Harmonies and melodies are found in the birdsong and the sirens.

The sound art help helps me make sense – helps me to see, and to arrange the formless sounds that feel like my only way of experiencing the outside world at this COVID time. They seem to find a structure of their own as the play and replay, as the outside world compresses through my window and into my computer and around and around in my head.

This work is primarily formed from field recordings made from the window in my study. The sound had been chopped, processed, vocoded, and layered with rhythms and digital synthesis to evoke the feelings of calm that cut through the angst and the confusion that permeate the street below.

Nick Stark

Perth musician Nick Stark is unendingly fascinated by the ability of sound to connect with emotions.

The feeling of field recordings, sounds and timbres from instruments modern and historical merging to create a soundtrack-like sense of place: tones and textures interweaving to evoke a sense of the new amidst the familiar; remarkable amongst the ordinary; signal within the noise.

Nick has played bass at the Fairbridge Festival and at Perth Fringe, but spends way too much time making machines for rhythm and synthesis. By day a design engineer but by night, projects include:

• Chaotic systems for sound synthesis (Unity/Unreal Engine, Supercollider)
• Stand-alone soundmaking hardware (Bela, Teensy, Axoloti)
• Procedural ambient music from field recordings
• Human interfaces for procedural audio generation (OpenFrameworks)
• Too many unfinished music composition and production bits and pieces

Nick loves Perth. The community, the ocean, the remarkable blend of isolation, sophistication and imagination make it a unique place to be.

unsilent.art

Acknowledgements